Charges lead to fewer bin collections in Dublin

Almost half of households in Dublin city have stopped putting their rubbish bins out for collection on a weekly basis since the new pay-by-use charges were introduced by the city council.

Figures from the council's waste-management department show that just 53 per cent of households with general-waste "black" wheelie bins are leaving their refuse out for weekly collection since the €5 "lifting charge" was introduced by the council on January Ist.

Last year, the council charged a flat fee of €195 for a standard 240-litre wheelie bin. Since the introduction of its pay-by-use scheme, the standing charge has been been reduced to €80 but a €5 charge is levied each time the bin is left out for collection.

This allows residents a degree of control over how much they pay the council. Those leaving their bin out every second week will pay €210 per year, but those sticking to a weekly collection will be charged €340.

The assistant city manager responsible for waste management, Mr Matt Twomey, said the council was pleased with the success of the scheme.

"Since January 1st we've been counting the number of times each bin has been left out and at the moment 53 per cent are left out on a weekly basis. That's a big reduction in a short space of time."

Mr Twomey said he expects the figure to settle at around 50 per cent, and once a pattern has been established the council will be able to deliver a more efficient waste service.

"Once the situation settles down the service will be able to become more economical and we will be able to reduce the number of trucks collecting bins."

Approximately 110,000 households in the city use wheelie bins. Just under 23,000 are still using refuse bags, to which they are required to attach a €5 pre-paid tag. Since January 10th the council has been refusing to collect rubbish bags that do not have tags attached to them.

The compliance rate for tagging has risen to 90 per cent in the last month, Mr Twomey said. "This has been very successful, it's very substantial compliance."

However, a number of residents and local representatives, particularly in the East Wall and Stoneybatter areas of the city, have complained to the council that bags of untagged rubbish had been left on the streets for weeks.

Cllr Christie Burke (Sinn Féin)told the council that his constituents were concerned that areas could become "rat infested" if the refuse was not collected.

"I am not aware of any rat-infested rubbish, because the council is not leaving rubbish on the street," Mr Twomey said.

While the council will not take untagged bags as part of weekly collection, waste-management workers do remove the bags to issue fines, he said.